It cuts both ways.

Cryptic Crosswords are almost impenetrable from the US as they're so deep in UK specific words, spellings, and trivia.

I love cryptic crossword, but there's so many "inside rules" that make them hard to approach for newcomers. It doesn't help that there really aren't a lot of good easy cryptics.

Yeah but that's like saying that there are so many "openings" in chess, it makes it hard for newcomers.

That's the game! The 'inside rules' for a cryptic are what makes it cryptic. Without them you just have a word puzzle.

The thing with chess, even if you don't know the rules, you can still play and (potentially) lose the game. If you don't know some random american trivia, you're stuck forever.

there are some good american and canadian cryptics but i agree, it's a largely uk-centred pastime.

Interesting. Any suggestions?

I've looked in the past and didn't have much luck.

lots of suggestions here: https://old.reddit.com/r/crosswords/comments/kqkbrq/what_are...

the new yorker archives are a great place to start https://www.newyorker.com/tag/cryptic-crossword